Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-02-18
MIR. GRADY AND THE NEW SOUTH.
a Letter from Judge Charles d. Drake
Protest Against the Charge of Northern
Wa--Hatrod.

New York Tribune.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26.-The following
letter was written soon efter the New
England Society dinner in New York by
ex Cnief Justice Charles D. Drake of the
Court of Claims. and sent to Mr.. Grady
for publication in his paper, the Atlanta
Constitution. Not having appeared in
that journal, it is kindly furnished by
Judge Drake for publication in the
| Tribune:
Mr.. II. W. Grady-I have read with
unusual interest and pleasure your pow
erful and eloquent speech 81 the New
England dinner in New York, on the 22d
inst, and the pleasure would have been
quite unalloyed but for its closing para
graph, which l cannot induce myself to
pass unnotiCed, for it is unjust. | do not
say that you so meant it, but, all the
same, 1t is uni just, and the injustice ought
not to be allowed to go unchallenged.
After eloquently utteriDg your "messsge"
for the indissoluble union of American
states and the imperishable brotherhood
of the American people," you go on in
these words:
What answer has New England to this
message? Will she permit the prejudice
W
Querors, when it has died in the hearts of
the conquered? Will she transmit this
prejudice to the next generation that in
hearts which never felt the generous ar
dor OF conflict it may perpetuate itself?
Will she withhold, save in strained cour-
tesy, the nand which, straight from his
soldiers heart, Grant offered to Lee at
AppomattoX? Will she make the vision
of restored and happy people, which
gathered above the couch of your dying
captain, filing his heart with pea e,
touching his lips with praise and glorlfy
ing his path to the grave-Will she make
this vision. on which the last sigh of his
expiring soul hresthed a benediction,
cheat or delusion? If she does the south,
never abject in asking for comradeship,
must accept with dignity it's refusal.
Mr.. Grady, it will hardly be disputed
that, though these questions were
addressed to New England, they were
meant for the entire moth. And feel
sure of your admitting that, taken as
whole they are in effect an affirmation
that the north cherishes the "prejudice of
war" to such an extent that she with
holds the hand of 'comradeshipr from
the south, and would "make the vision Of
restored and happy people cheat or
delusion." And what means that phrase.
"preiudlce of warp 1t has no sensible
meaning there-no meaning in tit proper
ton to the idea advanced, if it
does not import dissffectior, estrange-
ment, hostility, or, cOndensing the
whole into one word, hatred 4 hstred be-
gotten in and OF the var, and grimly sur
viving the lapse of nearly quarter of a
century since the war ceased to affiict
our bleeding country. So Interpreting
its meaning, | protest, in the name of all
that is manly and generous and true
against the trend and spirit OF those
questions, IS deeply unjust to the north |
And 1 say with emphasis that in attribut- |
ing to the north or any part of it, that
hatred, they are absolutely untrue. |
AS you have never, l believe, |
lived in the north, you are, l sup.
pose, not aware of their untruth; !
but, nevertheless, were every inhabitant |
of the north questioned under oath to- |
day, not one man in 500 could probably |
be found who Chrishes toward the south |
any sentiment of hate. If l am right in |
this opinion, then it follows that while |
you invoked the "imperishable brother |
hood Of the American people," you al |
most blocked the way to that brother |
hood in the south by enormously holding
the north up before the southern people |
as not only nursing war hatred toward
The south, but as intending that the ha-
tired shall not die out with the present |
generation, but shall be transmitted to
the next, and thence go on to "perpetuate
itself"
And when you go further, Mr.. Grady,
and assert that the "prejudice of war
has "died in the hearts of the conquered"